Tag Archives: winter

On a blistering cold night, a steaming hot bowl of soup is the tastiest cure to the shivers and well, almost everything else right? Now that winter is full steam (sorry) ahead, here are ten different Asian soups, from the popular to the underrated, that you should try eating and possibly try making this winter!

A Cambodian delicacy, kuy teav is a Camobidan Chinese pork noodle soup made from a clear broth and flat rice noodles. Kuy teav is usually enjoyed as a breakfast dish from street vendors, but we feel that it’s comforts will last throughout the day!

Unlike the popular ramen, soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour. Soba can be a year round dish and is typically served either hot and in a soup for winter or chilled with a dipping sauce for summer. Also, soba differs from udon in that soba noodles are thin while udon noodles are genuinely thicker.

A spicy Malayasian-Chinese fusion dish. There are three main types of laksa: curry laksa, asam laksa and sarawak laksa. Curry laksa has a coconut curry base, while asam laksa has a sourfish soup base, and sarawak has a sambal belacan base. No matter which type of laksa you choose, it’s sure to give you a kick!

There are many different types of beef noodle soups out there. However, the red-braised beef noodle soup was invented by Chinese refugees in Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. Today, Taiwan considers this red-braised beef noodle soup a national dish. With it’s tender beef and spicy broth, it is sure to be a comfort during those chilly months.

Bakmi ayam, or often shortened to mei ayam, is an Indonesian noodle soup that is very simple but delicious. The main ingredients are wheat noodles, chinese bok choy (cabbage), and slices of chicken and mushroom. Eaten separately or together with the broth, the soup is delicious either way!

Milagu Rasam is a pepper tamarind-based South Indian soup. Supposedly, both the black pepper and tamarind are natural heat-inducing ingredients for the body. Either way, milagu rasam is a tasty method to staying warm!

Pho is probably the most famous Vietnamese soups, but Bun Mang Vit, a duck and noodle soup, is also another tasty option! The main ingredients here are duck, bamboo shoots and vermicelli noodles, but the lemongrass, ginger and chili give this soup a nice kick.

“The definition of being a feminist has changed so much. During the ’60s and ’70s, it was burning bras and everything. I’m like, no, I love bras. They keep my boobs up. I don’t care if they were invented by men. Who cares? It’s really hard to say that I’m a feminist because the definition is still very blurred. But I tell people I’m a humanist. I believe in humanity. I believe you need both male and female to create life. To create balance, you need structure and you also need softness.”

On being the boss:

“People have this idea that when you’re the boss, everything is easy, but actually no, everything is harder. You have to have accountability for all the people you bring on. It’s a huge responsibility. People who are working a 9-to-5 job, they go there, they do their job, they go home, and they can do whatever they want. But when you’re the boss, you bring work home. There’s always going to be a sacrifice. Nothing is going to be given to you for free.

“At first, it was so hard. I didn’t get any sleep. But if you really want to start expanding your business and you really want to grow, that means you need to scale. You have to hire on people to help you. Instead of working harder, it’s about working smarter.”

On becoming online-famous:

“I’ve seen people become obsessed with, like, trying to get the numbers, and it’s no longer fun for them. It’s almost like they’ve become a slave to chasing the fame game. Chase your passion, not your fame. Passion will be more rewarding than fame and it lasts much longer. Fame is almost like junk food. It tastes good, but have too much of it and it becomes very distracting. Passion is like eating a healthy, balanced meal. Yeah, you might not get the instant gratification, like fame. But why would you want that validation? If you really need that validation, for people to praise you and give you attention, then obviously there are holes in your life.”

On oversharing:

“It’s nice to breastfeed your baby, but I don’t want to see the milk coming out of the nipple and clotting up and everything. This isn’t, like, National Geographic. But the definition of oversharing is subjective.”

On whether selfies are a tool of empowerment or an act of narcissism:

“Both. There’s narcissism in it — I’ll be the first to admit it. But it’s great because you should feel confident in the way you look. You should feel beautiful and want to show the world how beautiful you are. But if you’re posting a selfie every single minute, you’re brushing along the line of becoming obsessed with wanting validation, and I think that’s unhealthy. When I share a selfie, it’s almost like a hello. I don’t take a picture of myself to ask for praises. I take it to share it with my followers. A lot of people take pictures of themselves for validation. They say, ‘Ugh, I’m so ugly. I’m not wearing any makeup,’ but obviously, they look beautiful so they’re just fishing for compliments. For me, that can be destructive.”

On being limitless:

“Society has built it so that we have to think like we’re in boxes. If you’re a scientist, you can only be a scientist. You can’t mix science with religion and spirituality. Or if you’re a nurse, you can’t also be a football player. I saw that, and I realized, no, I don’t want to be in a box. I want to be limitless. So my whole new philosophy on life is thinking infinitely. There’s no beginning or end. Everything is a cycle. Even the plants outside come from dead cells. They used to be humans or animals. The sun comes up and then comes down and then comes up again. Having that philosophy in my head gave me a lot of peace.”

Know this face? This is the face of a CEO, media exec, lifestyle guru, music producer, entrepreneur, author, multimedia artist, beauty expert and YouTube mega-star. And according to Michelle Phan — the head of a multifaceted empire, a digital pioneer who reaches 11 million people on a daily basis,a woman who epitomizes multi-hyphenate — she could be you or me.

Story byMichelle Woo

Inside a Dillard’s department store in Tampa, Florida, Michelle Phan walked to the beauty section crammed with gleaming displays of eyeshadows and cream concealers, approached the woman working behind the counter, and said she’d like to apply for a job. Home from college in the summer of 2007, she needed to earn some money to help her single mother who had been working 15-hour shifts at the family’s nail salon. Plus, she loved beauty products and thought she’d be good at teaching customers how to use them.

The woman looked at Phan’s application and told her she needed retail experience.

Phan pleaded for a chance. Trust me, I can sell makeup, she said.

The woman said they’d call if there was an opportunity for her. Phan waited. Two weeks went by, and she still hadn’t heard back.

Undeterred, she grabbed her makeup bag, perched her laptop on a table in her patio, and turned on the webcam. Then, she looked in the camera and filmed her first beauty tutorial.

PHAN HAS JUST RETURNED FROM VidCon, a mega-gathering of online video stars held in Southern California, where she spoke on a panel, signed autographs and posed for selfies in a sea of 18,000 mostly millennial-aged attendees.

“I call it YouTube petting zoo,” she says of the annual event. Wearing a simple striped shirtdress and ballet flats, she sits on an Ikea counter stool and types on her phone while her hairstylist, Octavio, fluffs her cascade of smooth, dark curls. “You’re mobbed and you’re chased. But it’s cute.”

The 27-year-old YouTube star is getting ready for a photo shoot in her Los Angeles studio, a Pinterest-perfect space sprinkled with chic décor items — a Tiffany-blue globe, speakers shaped like hot pink gems, lip gloss tubes in a glass vase and a ceramic mug adorned with the letter “M.” On a wall, mounted inside a glass frame is a gold-plated “play” button, a gift sent to her from YouTube execs when she hit 1 million subscribers. (She was the first to do so, but that was a couple years ago. She now has 7 million “subbies” and counting.)

Since uploading that first video tutorial in 2007, Phan has become a beauty and lifestyle power brand. She’s one of the first vloggers to achieve offline fame — her videos have played on a gigantic screen in New York City’s Times Square — and her success shows no signs of fading in the way of other one-viral-hit wonders. (“I feel like the Mother Goose of YouTube,” she says, while texting advice to a friend on hiring employees.) She has her own media company (FAWN: For All Women Network), makeup line (em michelle phan, backed by L’Oréal), and subscription beauty box company (ipsy). And she’s just released her first book, Make Up: Your Life Guide To Beauty, Style and Success—Online and Off.

While she started with straightforward videos on how to apply makeup — which have ranged from the practical (“Brow Basics” and “5 Ways To Plump Your Lips”) to must-hit-the-share-button-now shocking (she’s transformed herself into icons such as Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen and even Barbie, a clip that has logged more than 57 million views) — Phan has evolved over the years into a self-proclaimed “life guide.” Like a modern-day Emily Post, she tackles topics spanning from hostess gifts to “textiquette” to starting over after a breakup, sharing bits of wisdom on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and her blog with her legions of fans who eagerly seek guidance on how to be all things Michelle.

It’s a life where every digital move is strategized, calculated and deliberated. At her kitchen counter, Phan’s team hovers around laptops and reviews the font on a promo flier for an upcoming live Twitter Q&A. During a conference call, they finalize the social media hashtags for her new book. Watching Phan in real life is sort of like being sucked into an infomercial. (I decided I needed to buy the teeth whitening device and detox vitamins she uses after she gushed about them. And no, neither company has paid her.) Yet she never comes across as mechanical. Instead, Phan is charming and exudes an everywoman realness, like an in-the-know friend. Naturally, her YouTube nickname is “Beauty Bestie.”

To Phan, branding is not about manufacturing fame, but about always presenting your best self, which she believes all young women should aim to do, Internet sensation or not. It’s also about embracing a DIY attitude at a time when financial certainty is scarce. “I was reading that we may not have Social Security money,” Phan says as a makeup artist brushes her eyelids with color. “It’s going to run out, so there’s not going to be any retirement money for you and me. So I told myself, I don’t want to depend on the system; I want to depend on myself. People my age paid so much money for college, and they’re in debt right now and can’t get a job because they have no job experience. How does that system even make sense?”

Phan wants to help lead a new movement, one that urges young men and women to build their own businesses, whether it’s making web videos or opening a food truck. “The Internet is changing the marketplace,” she says. “It’s no longer about conglomerates, but about sharing. It’s about asking, ‘What can I contribute to society? How can I make society better?’ People think, oh, well, you make makeup tutorials. It’s like, no, no, no. You don’t realize it’s not just makeup tutorials. It’s videos empowering women. When you have women feeling good about themselves, that can change the entire world.”

PHAN WASN’T LIKE THE OTHER girls at school. She had little interest in hanging out at the mall or playing Truth or Dare at sleepovers. Instead, she often spent her days sitting in her bedroom with an encyclopedia set that her family picked up from a yard sale, reading it from A to Z. “I was obsessed with Egypt,” she says, her eyes widening. “I learned how to write my name in hieroglyphics and made my own mummy and sarcophagus using papier-mâché. I kept it in my closet. My mom would always tell me to throw that thing away.”

She reflects a lot on history and the concept of time. It’s something that shapes her, fuels her. “I’m not interested in Hollywood scandals,” says Phan. “They’re so trivial. All these people that you see in this town think they’re ‘it.’ It’s like, no, you’re not. You’re very temporary, and so am I. When you think about it, the invention of the car was about 100 years ago. Such significant changes can happen [in a short time]. Imagine if everyone came together to work for a common goal rather than just going off and becoming the king of the world on their own.”

Her own history, as she tells it, begins in Vietnam. Both of Phan’s parents fled the terror of war in the late 1970s. During his escape, her father spent three months on a boat carrying refugees to Hong Kong. Many passengers died, and he watched as bodies were tossed overboard. “The cold,” says Phan. “He’ll never forget how it felt. It went straight through his bones.” Years later, Phan was born in Boston. Her father gave her the Vietnamese name Tuyet Bang, the word for avalanche, to capture that “unstoppable force.”

When Phan and her brother were babies, her parents stuck a crib in the back of a $600 van and drove for four days from Boston to San Francisco. There, her father developed a gambling addiction and would often lose the money they needed for rent. In one year, the family was evicted 10 times. “My mother would hide money inside my teddy bears and jacket pockets,” Phan recalls. “She’d say, ‘Don’t tell Father.’ I had to learn these mind games growing up. It sucked.”

They eventually moved to Tampa, and after a short time there, Phan’s father, who had been struggling in the flooring business, announced he was going back to Boston to look for work. He never returned. Phan says she always had it in her head that she’d find him again, and when she finally did as an adult, he told her that the moment he walked out, he knew she would be OK in life. She still loves him, she says. “He was a risk taker, kind of like me. He was just very lost.” When asked what her father’s best attribute as a parent was, she says, “He left us alone.”

High school started out miserably. As one of the few Asian Americans in her Florida town, she was taunted by kids who’d yell “ching-chong” and “do Jackie Chan moves” when she walked through the halls. “I was an emotional punching bag,” she recalls. She tried to cope the way many other young girls do — by changing the way she looked. To fit in with the Latina girls, she would lie in the sun until her skin was golden bronze, slather her hair with baby oil and wear “giant earrings with my name on them.” When she decided to try out the “hood look,” she asked her black friends to braid cornrows in her hair. “Part of it was insecurity,” Phan says of her experimental makeovers. “I didn’t think being me was good enough. But part of me liked it. I was this very emo kid. Wearing these masks empowered me to show different sides of myself. I could change my book cover.”

AS MALCOLM GLADWELL HERALDS in Outliers, his best-selling book on success, timing is critical. (His prime example is that several tech revolutionaries were born around 1955 and were about 20 years old at the dawn of the Computer Age — Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Paul Allen, among others.) For viral YouTube videos, it was 2007 that heralded a new era. It was the year the world was introduced to the hit clips “Charlie Bit My Finger,” “Chocolate Rain,” “Leave Britney Alone!” and the bait-and-switch meme known as “Rickrolling.”

Two thousand seven was also the year that a 20-year-old Phan uploaded her first makeup tutorial video. She had grown up with computers, selling candy with her brother at school to scrape together enough money to buy a bubble-shaped Apple iMac G3. At 15, she would read blogs and share her drawings of anime characters on the social network Asian Avenue, where she was known as “Asian Goddess.” She then joined the popular blogging platform Xanga, chose the username RiceBunny and wrote entries on topics ranging from how to make a ninja mask to how to curl your hair. Thousands of people read and commented on her page daily. “My ambition was to be popular online because I wasn’t popular in real life,” Phan writes in her book.

Using money that her uncle gave her family after visiting once and seeing that they had been living out of boxes in a single bedroom, Phan enrolled at the Ringling College of Art + Design in Sarasota, Florida. That year, the college announced it would give each freshman student a MacBook Pro.

It was with that MacBook Pro, just seven years ago, that Phan decided to make a video titled “Natural Looking Makeup Tutorial,” filming it in the patio of the home where she was renting a room. In the clip, edited with iMovie, Phan applies makeup for seven minutes, dabbing concealer under her eyes with her ring finger, filling in her eyebrows with eyeshadow and lining her eyelids with liquid eyeliner. She chose not to speak on camera, a stylistic decision that would become one of her trademarks. “I figured if someone is watching this, she’s probably not going to want someone who’s, like, ‘Alright, guys, now take your eyeliner and line your eyes!” she says, imitating a perky Valley Girl. “I wanted something softer, something very therapeutic and spa-like.”

Instead of talking into the camera, she records a separate vocal track, her lulling voice narrating each step over soft music. The result is so hypnotic that even those with zero interest in mascara can’t help but hit replay. She wanted to channel the late Bob Ross, star of the oddly captivating PBS show The Joy of Painting. “You know,” Phan says, “the one with the ’fro who was always like ‘happy clouds’ and ‘happy grass’ and was probably, like, baked out of his mind.” As for the tutorial, she says, “No one did it the way I did.”

Almost instantly, people started watching and then telling their friends. They would comment that she was beautiful and her voice was so calming and, hey, can you teach us how to do a smoky eye next? By the end of the week, the video had received more than 40,000 views.

Phan started posting more tutorials, and during breaks between classes, while the other students would wander outside to have a cigarette and gossip, she would open her YouTube page and hit “refresh,” watching the number of pageviews rise. Her teachers would tell her to stop getting distracted by this little hobby, but she knew it was becoming something more.

Before the days of savvy job seekers stamping their Klout scores on their résumés, when the term “followers” would more likely bring to mind images of a religious flock, Phan says she was already thinking about ways to build an online audience. She felt that it would help her somehow, even if it wasn’t quite clear how. “I saw what was happening,” she says. “I saw people graduating and not getting jobs. I just wanted to have my own little safety net that I built myself. I wanted to have some sort of advantage. I knew about the power of networking and the power of getting on people’s radar.”

Hank Green, co-creator of VidCon and the Vlogbrothers (a wildly popular YouTube show that he hosts with his brother, John Green, author of The Fault In Our Stars), explains, “Michelle wasn’t just one of the first beauty creators on YouTube — she was one of the first creators on YouTube. By mixing useful tutorials and tips with a positive and affirming outlook on life, she helped to define an entire genre of video that has become hugely influential.”

The little “hobby” also started bringing her a little money. Through her YouTube channel, Phan started earning 20 cents a day, and then $20 a day, and then $200 a week. Soon, she quit her part-time job as a waitress at a sushi joint. The restaurant owner shook his head and told her she could come back once she woke up to reality. But she insisted that he give her job to someone else. “If you give yourself a safety net, you give yourself that doubt,” Phan says. “But if you remove that safety net, you don’t even have an ounce of failure in your head. Because you can’t. It’s all-out or nothing. Success or bust.”

Phan was entering her final year of college and was supposed to choose a topic for her thesis. She had narrowed it down to either a project inspired by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, or a makeup line. Then one day, she got a message from Kerry Diamond, then the head of public relations at French cosmetics powerhouse Lancôme. Execs wanted to fly her to New York for a meeting. When she got there, they told her their deal. The company had been making big-budget beauty videos with supermodels and professional makeup artists, and no one was watching them. “It was like crickets,” Diamond says. “We would get maybe five views a day, and that was from me and my team.” Curious as to what people were watching, Diamond started clicking on the “related videos” on YouTube and kept noticing Phan. “There was something very different and very special about her that I don’t think anyone could put their finger on,” Diamond says. “She had a certain je ne sais quoi. It was kind of magic.”

In a bold move, the company made Phan their official video makeup artist and online spokesperson. The gig involved flying all over the world — Paris, Hong Kong and Beijing — for magazine photo shoots and other events. At that point, Phan had to make a decision. “I said, you know what? I’m gonna do this Lancôme thing for a year, and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back and finish my final year of school.”

She’s never been back.

“NO ONE IS PERFECT AT EVERYTHING,” Phan says, speaking into the camera and holding an amethyst stone in her hand. “We’re all made to be perfectly imperfect, kind of like this crystal. See, it’s not perfectly cut like a flawless diamond, but it’s beautiful in its own unique way. There won’t be another crystal like this one, and just like you, it has many, many facets.”

The video, “How To Build Self Confidence,” released this past summer, is filled with Phan’s personal tips on how to find your best qualities and pass on your gifts to others. Like the many other videos on her YouTube channel, Michelle Phan, it oozes with G-rated, Disney Channel-esque charm. Over the years, the production values of her videos have gotten snazzier (she now has a camera guy, a lighting person and a production manager), but the basic formula remains the same — at their heart, it’s simply Phan talking to her viewers, sharing stories and wisdom. She shakes her head when new vloggers become obsessed with buying the latest video gear and software. “When I was little, my mom couldn’t afford a Halloween costume, so she drew an upside down triangle on my nose with lipstick and whiskers on my face with black eyeliner and we found a homemade lion costume at a thrift store, and I was a beast. That’s my philosophy in life. You already have everything. You have your hands and your mind, the most powerful tools that you’ll ever need.”

Phan, who calls herself a “multi-media artist,” holds on to that do-it-yourself mentality, and says she’s involved with every aspect of her brand. Living in a sort of online fishbowl, she’s also hyper-aware of her every move and how it might be viewed, and she shields her persona with fervor. “Because I’m a public figure, I have be mindful of what I say,” she says. “So I can’t just post a picture of me super drunk and being like, ‘YOLO!’ [‘you only live once’— the ‘carpe diem’ for the Twitter generation]. Branding-wise, that doesn’t work with my image.” Nudity, she says, is also “off-limits” and “something I only want my lover to see.”

She advises young girls to think of themselves as their own brand, and before they post anything online, they should ask themselves if they’d want their grandmother, future kids or future boss to see it. When she looks at her old Xanga posts, she cringes. “I think, oh my god, I was so annoying. I was this 19-year-old girl writing in all caps. Super obnoxious.

“I’m at a point in my life where I’m no longer a girl,” Phan adds. “I’m a woman. And because I’m a woman, I have more freedom. And because I have freedom, I have to be careful about the decisions I make. When you’re young, you think you’re invincible, but then things happen in your life, and you’re like, actually, I’m not invincible. I’m actually very fragile as a person. So you become more careful with what you do.” As for online attackers (and she has her share of them — multiple Michelle Phan hate-sites exist in cyberspace), Phan sees them as “terrible potholes.” The best way to handle them, she believes, is to ignore them or send them love. “I’ll say things like, ‘Hey, I’m praying for you.’ If they have to punch my online persona so that they can feel better, well, at least I helped them feel better. You just have to think of it that way.”

Phan’s rise to mega-fame has placed her in vulnerable territory. This summer, she was sued by electronic dance music company Ultra Records, which accused her of illegally using songs of its artists in her videos, including a track by Grammy-nominated DJ Kaskade. (Kaskade actually supported Phan, tweeting, “Copyright law is a dinosaur, ill-suited for the landscape of today’s media.”) Phan has countersued, claiming she did receive permission to use the songs. Her team declined comment on the lawsuit and instead directed me to the news of Phan’s latest venture — she’s launching a new music label with Cutting Edge Group called Shift Music Group.

The online artist never envisioned herself as a business founder and CEO, but now that she’s in that position, she’s urging others to get out of the corporate system, too, if that’s what they really want. This year, Phan inked a development deal with Endemol Beyond USA, the digital arm of global TV production firm Endemol. Her role is to build a female-focused lifestyle network, mentoring new talent and developing programming ideas with them. She believes that today’s digital revolution is shaking the structure of society in a fundamental way — and that’s a progressive step. “Things are getting worse right now, politically speaking, all over the world,” she says. “When you look at how just 1 percent of America’s population makes this amount of money while the rest is suffering, that shows you there needs to be a change. People complain about millennials being lazy because of computers. OK, then remove computers from school and just have dictionaries and encyclopedias, but is that really gonna better them? Yeah, they may not have to physically open things or do the manual work, but that gives them more room and time, and I think that with the right environment, you can really inspire them to become super programmers and brilliant people for the future.”

They can start by simply sharing what they know, whether it’s makeup or home décor or funny jokes, says Phan. Chances are, they’ll connect with someone. Once, at a meet-and-greet, a young man came up to Phan and told her that he started watching her tutorials after his mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had lost her hair from chemotherapy and was so weak that she couldn’t even lift her hands. Knowing that she always loved putting on makeup, the son decided to raid her cosmetics bag and do it for her, to connect with her and make her feel beautiful up until her final days.

“It’s not a superficial thing,” Phan says of makeup. “Beauty is your face. It’s what people look at when they’re speaking to you — your eyes, your mouth. It’s your persona. I have this bond with my viewers because I’m showing them how to find their own beauty, on the outside and within.”

After the photo shoot, Phan slips back into her shirtdress and flats, a breezy, no-frills ensemble that she says she would “wear every day if I could.” For a woman who made a reported $5 million in 2013 (her team declined to confirm her financials), she lives with extraordinary simplicity. When not working, she’s hanging out with her boyfriend, model Dominique Capraro, or watching documentaries like Sirius Disclosure. She sleeps on a futon sofa and uses the same bag from years ago. “I don’t have attachments to things,” she says. “I don’t want to own things because ultimately what happens is that the things start owning you.” She adds that having the philosophy that life is not a ladder but “a circle” has given her great peace. “I’m no longer chasing this idea of being successful and having money. Now it’s like, what can I do with this money? This money doesn’t buy me happiness. It buys me the freedom to build something even bigger that can help the whole world.”

At the end of the interview, I ask Phan if we can take a selfie together. After all, she’s the reigning queen of the art — her video “How To Take The Perfect Selfie” has been viewed 2.8 million times.

She gleefully agrees, holding my phone while extending her arm out in front of us.

“Always hold the camera up and look up,” she says. She elongates her neck and turns her face toward the natural light. Then she looks into the camera with confidence and smiles.

We’re more than excited to introduce our Audrey Magazine Winter 2014-2015 cover girl Michelle Phan! Be on the look out for our exclusive cover story coming soon. Can’t wait to get your hands on the issue? Click here to purchase it or to subscribe to Audrey Magazine.

For now, check out what Audrey’s editor-in-chief Anna M. Park has to say about YouTube’s beauty bestie:

The last time we tried to get Michelle Phan on our cover was 2010. We had the clothes, the makeup, the venue, everything ready. And then she came down with the chicken pox. The day before the shoot. It was clearly not meant to be.

In 2010, Michelle was big. She had over a million YouTube subscribers then. Her Lady Gaga makeup tutorials had gone viral. And she had just become Lancôme’s official video makeup artist. She was hot. And we were so disappointed we couldn’t get her on the cover.

Well, we finally got her on the cover. And today, Michelle Phan is even hotter than four years ago. A million subscribers? Try over 7 million now. Lancôme? She’s still there. But she has her own makeup line as well, backed by beauty giant L’Oréal. YouTube? Sure, but with her own multichannel network, FAWN, where she curates and develops new talent and content as executive producer. Add to that a beauty sampling company, a new book, even her own music label. Michelle isn’t just big anymore. She’s empire big.

Here’s the funny thing about her story. Michelle dropped out of college to pursue her dreams, to work with Lancôme back in 2010. And this year, that same school, the Ringling College of Art + Design, bestowed on Michelle an honorary doctorate of arts in the business of art and design. She definitely proves that life isn’t necessarily a straight line or an even path. It is — as she says — a circle. Read more about her amazing journey in writer Michelle Woo’s story coming soon!

Knit caps (or beanies) seem to be the headwear accessory favorite for keeping warm in Japan, Korea and China. Nearly every day now, street style blog images pop up with people sporting seamed caps. Practical and simple, this style hat has been popularized by media from television shows through out the decades to celebrities and musicians that make it their fashion trade mark. Take inspiration from these three countries for styling a cozy knit cap into your winter rotation.

1. Japan
We’ve been seeing an abundance of knit hats complementing classic pencil skirts and tops, or midi dresses with long jackets and coats for a more casual look.

Images Courtesy Of Style-arena.jp

Images Courtesy Of Style-arena.jp

2. China
Taking a more urban approach to headwear, here is a look we often see on musicians and celebrities in the United States—knit hats and leather biker jackets.

Image Courtesy Of Stylites.net

3. Korea
Mix your styles up with interesting scarves, oversized coats (which are right on trend for winter), or easy-going crew neck sweatshirts.

Images Courtesy Of Iamalexfinch.net And Sol-sol-street.tumblr.com

Want to add some cozy knits to your wardrobe? Check out famous Korean-American milliner Eugenia Kim’s designs. Here’s a few of our favorites:

Fall is here and winter is just around the corner. For many of you, that means sweater weather, boots and warm colors. But for those of you who are tired of dark and gloomy and are looking for a pop of color in your look, we suggest you use your hair.

Nelson Chan, the owner of Nelson J Salon, has brought together a number of looks perfect for the Fall/Winter season. Trust me when I say these are not your average cold weather hair colors. These hairstyles are sure to turn heads, while maintaining the warm feeling associated with the seasons. My favorite? Bronde.

Bronde is a darker take on a blonde look first made popular by Victoria Secret supermodel, Giselle Bundchen.

“With a medium to dark base, boomerang-shaped blonde slices are scattered strategically around the eyes, cheekbones and neckline to add a bit of drama to what might otherwise be a basic brown. Placement is key, and the effect is more abstract than one which merely mimics nature. For instance, Chan does not place blonde highlights on the top of the head or parting, where in real life sunlight would fall and lighten locks. “Bronde” is an elegant, witty reimagining of how a worldly brunette might experience a last flicker of lingering summer as the seasons shift to darker days ahead.”

Clearly, Bronde strives to show the dark, warm colors of fall and winter with a lasting reminder of summer. The effect is a gorgeous Fall/Winter hairstyle that stands out brilliantly in comparison to the dark shades that are sure to pop up this season.

Upon first glance, I fell in love with this look. Would it truly look as good in person? I went to go find out for myself.

I was a little apprehensive about the idea of walking out of a salon with giant chunks of blond in my hair, but a after few minutes of looking around, all apprehension disappeared. Everyone clearly knew what they were doing and more importantly, they were determined to do a good job.

I was greeted at the door by a friendly receptionist who gave me a tour of the salon which not only only offers hair service, they also do nails and makeup. After a greeting from all of the staff members and offers of refreshment, I finally met the famed Nelson Chan.

“Back in Hong Kong, I was just a shampoo boy having fun,” Chan reflected as he began working on my hair. He laughed and added, “My first hair cut took my three hours. I didn’t even finish.”

Well he has certainly come a long way since his days in Hong Kong. His salon has become one of the leading salons in Los Angeles. His work is so sought after that he is often summoned to celebrity homes and movie sets. His client list includes the likes of Lady Gaga, Paula Abdul, Devon Aoki, Christina Applegate, Sarah Michelle Geller and Maggie Q.

“We mainly have celebrities, professionals and house wives.” Chan added before he showed me, step by step, what he was going to do with my hair.

In fact, there wasn’t a single moment during the entire visit where I wasn’t informed exactly what was going on. I was constantly asked if I was comfortable enough and it was obvious that the staff paid very close attention to every customer no matter how many there were. Chan confirmed that his staff members are thoroughly trained and are even taught new and updated techniques throughout their time working for him.

As the dye was washed off my hair by a staff member (who had the hands of an angel!), I noticed a customer in the middle of a deep conversation with her manicurist. It’s easy to see how this could happen– the staff made the environment extremely comfortable and welcoming to all the customers.

By the time Chan was blow drying and curling my hair, any bit of apprehension was completely replaced with excitement. I had just witnessed 3 other girls walk out of the salon with giant smiles and I was confident that I would soon join them.

Before and After.

Just as I had expected, my hair came out beautiful and has been eye catching enough to be a fashion accessory all on its own. The prices in Nelson J Salon can run a bit high, but it’s clear that you’re paying for an experience and for people who genuinely care . Best of all, you’re surrounded by people who sincerely seem to enjoy their work.

Ready to try out this perfect Fall/Winter hair for yourself? Check out the official websiteand schedule your appointment today.

If she hadn’t been bullied at an American high school, she may not have returned to India only to win Miss World. If she hadn’t won Miss World, she may not have become Bollywood’s biggest actress. For Priyanka Chopra, with her debut pop album just on the horizon, destiny is all about taking that next step after you fall.

When PRIYANKA CHOPRA was 17 years old, the young Indian beauty had spent a few difficult high school years abroad in the United States before deciding to go back to India for her senior year. Upon her return, her mother sent some photos Chopra had taken to apply for an engineering scholarship to the Femina Miss India beauty pageant. Within the span of a year, Chopra went from being taunted by American teenagers who called her “brownie” to winning the 2000 Miss World title at age 18 — still the youngest contestant to ever win the pageant in its 63-year history.

Now 31, Chopra says that if she hadn’t been bullied at school and desperate to return home to India, she would have never fallen into her mega-successful career in the Bollywood entertainment industry.

“I think it gave me the strength to take adversity head on,” says Chopra. “I also learned that your life and destiny is in your own hands. Take chances, push boundaries, jump, fall, fail, cry, and then brush it all off and start all over. You will face adversity at many points in your life, but you can’t let it become a roadblock.

“The incident [in high school] upset and hurt me tremendously,” she continues, “but ultimately made me stronger. Then being back home in India led me to participate and win the Miss India and Miss World crowns. I found what I loved to do, gave it everything I had and left the rest up to destiny. Nothing anyone says or does will ever change that.”

In a business that is ruled by Kapoors, Bachchans, Roshans and Khans (who are often sons and daughters of already-successful film industry folk), Chopra prides herself in being a self-made star. Her parents, both doctors in the Indian army at the time, had no connections to Bollywood. But when Chopra was flooded with acting offers after her Miss World win, her mother actually gave up her flourishing practice to come to Mumbai with her daughter to help chase her new dreams.

“We were so far removed from this world,” says Chopra. “We didn’t know anyone and didn’t know a thing about the film business. What actually helped us through it was that we knew this was not a ‘do-or-die’ situation, so we just trusted our instincts and stuck to our values. Every day was a challenge, everything I had to face, good or bad, was a new experience, and that in itself was a challenge.”

In the beginning of her career, Chopra was involved in some commercial successes — Andaaz opposite Akshay Kumar, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi with Salman Khan and Kumar, Krrish with Hrithik Roshan, and Don opposite Shah Rukh Khan — but it took a while for her to be taken seriously as an actress and gain parts that did more than capitalize on her looks.

“Learning to be an actor and understanding the craft was a huge challenge for me,” says Chopra. “I didn’t go to acting school. My [previously] desired career path was to be an engineer. So I listened, observed and absorbed everything that was happening around me. It gave me the foundation that I needed to build on and really paid off.”

One could argue that Chopra’s biggest turning point came in 2008, with her role as an ambitious supermodel in Fashion. Not only was Chopra in the title role in the women-centric film with no male leads, she picked up most of the major best actress awards that year, including the Filmfare Awards, International Indian Film Academy Awards, and the National Film Awards.

In 2012, she further cemented her acting chops by donning a short curly hairdo to play an autistic girl, rendering her almost unrecognizable as Ranbir Kapoor’s unlikely love interest in the romantic comedy Barfi!. Nowadays, with more than 40 films under her belt, she’s respected as a hard-working actress who is bankable yet not afraid to take chances with her roles.

But it was late 2012 that brought her boldest move yet — a foray into the international pop music scene. Bollywood film is known for its musical numbers, and as part of film tradition, the actors and actresses dance and lip-synch to songs that are pre-recorded by professional playback singers. While there have been instances of actors recording songs for their own films, Chopra is the first major Bollywood star to sign a record deal with the intent of releasing a solo English album for a global audience.

Instead of staying in India, where she is already a bona fide superstar with almost 5 million Twitter followers (the most of any Bollywood actress), Chopra deliberately chose Los Angeles as her base for recording music, and she is working with American artists and producers to develop her own style that fuses universally appealing pop/dance beats with her Indian roots.

“It’s been super fun, but also scary in a way, because as a lyricist you are delving into your own experiences and emotions to create these songs,” says Chopra. “As you will hear, my music is really driven by my moods. When I’m hyper I write a pop song; when I’m sad I write ballads.”

Chopra has since released two singles, with a third due any day now. “In My City,” featuring will.i.am, was certified triple platinum in India when it debuted in September 2012, and it made a resurgence this past September when it was chosen as the NFL Networks’ official new Thursday Night Football opening theme song. Her second single “Exotic,” featuring Pitbull, not only hit number one in iTunes India when it was released this past July, it also appeared on the Billboard Dance/Electronic charts in the United States, as well as the Canadian Hot 100.

Her upcoming debut album, scheduled for early 2014, is a collaboration between Universal Music Group, Interscope Records and Desi Hits!, and both “In My City” and “Exotic” were produced and co-written by Grammy-nominated producer RedOne, a Top 40 hit-maker for artists like Nicki Minaj, Jennifer Lopez, One Direction and Lady Gaga.

“Making music is such an organic process, and there is really no set pattern,” says Chopra. “In the course of putting my album together, I have had such varied experiences. Sometimes a song has been borne out of a melody created while sitting in the studio, or it germinates from a particular emotion that you are feeling on any given day. Sometimes a story or a word tossed into a conversation — that becomes the center point of the idea for your song. It can happen anywhere and anyhow, and that’s what makes it so magical.”

That said, her ardent Bollywood fans need not worry about her abandoning the silver screen any time soon, as Chopra’s filming schedule has definitely not been put on hold amidst the madness. Always the multitasker, the impossibly busy triple threat recently re-teamed with Hrithik Roshan for the superhero sequel Krrish 3, released in November, and she will soon finish filming the upcoming Mary Kom biopic, in which she plays the titular role of the celebrated Indian boxer. Chopra was also recently named the new Guess Girl, becoming the first model of Indian descent for the clothing brand and following in the steps of such well-known names as Claudia Schiffer, Anna Nicole Smith and Kate Upton. Handpicked by Guess CEO Paul Marciano, not only will Chopra appear in their holiday ads shot by Bryan Adams (yes, the musician) in the December issue for almost all the major American fashion magazines, her music and Guess campaign video will stream across the brand’s 1,700 stores worldwide.

Looking back, even though the teenage Chopra dealt with her share of mean high school girls who didn’t appreciate her South Asian roots, her experiences in the United States weren’t all bad. Her exposure to American hip-hop and R&B during her formative years — she was obsessed with Tupac Shakur and wore black to school every day for a week after he passed away — has influenced the eclectic mix of music she co-writes and listens to today.

And Chopra recognizes that we’re now in a different time: as the world is becoming more global (our own Miss America is of South Asian descent, after all), we just might be ready for an Indian pop star in America.

This cover story was originally published in our Winter 2013-14 issue. Get your copy here.

January is National Stalking Awareness Month. It’s a crime that affects more than 6.6 million adults each year, yet stalking is little understood in the media and gravely under-reported by victims. Contributor Janice Jann breaks the silence and shares why it’s important to take this threat seriously.

ISSUE: Winter 2012-13

DEPT: Features

STORY: Janice Jann

The term “stalker” gets tossed around far too lightly these days.

“Ew, are you stalking me?” you joke when bumping into someone at the same frozen yogurt shop.

“I’m going to Facebook stalk him,” when you find out a friend has a new boyfriend.

But when you find yourself the victim of actual stalking, it’s no laughing matter.

The Beverly Center shopping mall in Los Angeles is home to many high-end and affordable clothing stores and boutiques. Stores such as, Tiffany’s, Burberry, Forever 21, and Macy’s have had Los Angelenos and tourists flock to Southern California’s very first fashion location. Now, shoppers could purchase from its brand new store, Versace Collection. The high-end brand house extended its line so that men and women could have a chance to wear Versace without breaking the bank.

On Saturday, October 20th, Audrey Magazine attended a private viewing of its Fall/Winter 2012 Collection. Hosted by Phoenix International Magazine, event goers, who were dressed in their best clothes, sipped on champagne and hors d’oeuvres as they enjoyed the mini fashion show. After the models strutted the clothing around the store, attendees spent some time shopping. 10% of each purchase that evening was donated to The Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.

Continue Reading for pictures and a peek at the Fall/Winter 2012 Collection!

Blanc de Chine proves that you don’t need to be “under the tents” at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week to bring in the buzz and the crowd. The luxurious Chinese brand showcased their Fall/Winter 2013 collection at their Fifth Avenue store on Sunday (February 10) to a fashionable crowd that included Chinese-American singer Baiyu.

Blanc de Chine kept their inspirations close to the homeland. Menswear was inspired by the robes in the Tang Dynasty, while the womenswear was inspired by the flying Apsaras, the female spirit of the clouds and water and the symbol of Dunhuang art. Both influences were beautifully expressed throughout the collection, notably in the womenswear. Female models walked the runway in elegant and airy pieces, varying from flowy dresses to sleek pants and sheer camisoles in earthy shades of blue, green, brown, gray and black. But the one look that seemed to embody the essence of the Apsara was the navy long dress with sheer cape, bringing to mind the fabric and ribbons that would support the windless Apsaras when flying in the air. What made the afternoon more special for Blanc de Chine was that their fashion week date fell on Chinese New Year, treating the guests with wine and dumplings.

Audrey Magazine is an award-winning national publication that covers the Asian experience from the perspective of Asian American women. Audrey covers the latest talent and trends in entertainment, fashion, beauty and lifestyle.